Repenting for Slavery, Alien Movies, Frank Ocean’s “Blonde”

Coming up on today’s show:

• Yesterday, Georgetown University apologized for its historical use of slavery, and is trying to make amends by offering preferential treatment in admissions to the descendants of the 272 slaves sold by the university, among other actions. Maxine Crump, descendent of the Georgetown 272, and Craig Steven Wilder, historian at M.I.T., join us to discuss.

• There’s crowdfunding for health costs, movies, new gadgets…and now, lawsuits. It’s called litigation finance, and what you do is front some money to pay for litigation costs, and if your party wins you get a slice of the earnings. Maya Steinitz, law professor at the University of Iowa, tells us the incentives for litigation finance can be problematic.

• Earlier this week, scientists detected a spike in radio signals coming from deep space. Everyone’s asking if it could be aliens. The Takeaway’s Culture Reporter Melissa Locker is asking, “Have you seen all the awesome movies out there about aliens?”

• Film critic Rafer Guzman reviews two of the weekend’s movie releases, The Light Between Oceans and Morgan.

• President Barack Obama continues his last trip to Asia advocating for preserving natural resources and halting climate change. David Biello, Science Curator at Ted Talks, joins us to review Obama’s track record as a climate-friendly president.